Is 'cow tipping' fact or fiction? Kansas ranchers chime in

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Working for you, 27 News reached out to the Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) and the Kansas Livestock Association to see if cow tipping is just an urban legend.

Greg Doering said the KFB didn't have any "cow tipping experts in the office today" but added that if you "mess with the bull, you'll get the horns".

Manager of Communications & Advertising at the Kansas Livestock Association Rachel Waggie provided a witty quip regarding cow tipping.

"Sadly, very few cows are tipped, despite the care and effort they put forth for us," Waggie said. "I suspect it has something to do with their lack of access to credit card readers combined with their inability to use a tablet and say 'now it’s just going to ask you a few questions…' after you swipe."

Jokes aside, Waggie said cow tipping isn't a real concern.

"If a cow were to be tipped over (a feat of physics and “udder” strength), and the guilty tipper was not trampled by others in the herd, the animal would just stand back up and play it cool," Waggie said.

In 2005, Tracy Boechler with the University of British Columbia published an article on whether cow tipping was possible. According to her findings, a 1.45-meter-tall cow would need the equivalent of 4.43 people to be tipped over.

"The static physics of the issue say two people might be able to tip a cow," Doctor of Zoology Margo Lillie said. "But the cow would have to be tipped quickly — the cow’s centre of mass would have to be pushed over its hoof before the cow could react."

Modern Farmer added proof to the implausibility of cow tipping. Modern Farmer compared cow tipping to "cow casting". According to Modern Farmer, cow casting is when a farm needs a cow on its side, typically for veterinarian purposes. Farmers will use a series of ropes and people pulling from different directions to carefully get a cow onto its side. Modern Farmer said when cattle casting goes badly, "it can go very bad indeed".

In a book by Professor Emeritus of Biology at Duke University, Steven Vogel, 'Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds', Vogel contested the number of humans needed to tip a cow. Vogel said that if a cow moderately widens its stance about 4,000 newtons of force or 14 people would be needed to tip the cow.

"Quite a challenge to deploy without angering the cow," Vogel wrote.

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